LOS ANGELES — A Hollywood interior designer testified Wednesday that Lana Clarkson put on a "game face" of happiness for the world, but was actually "out-of-her mind depressed" about romantic and career setbacks the month before she died.

Jennifer Hayes-Riedl, who described herself as a "very close friend" of the actress killed in Phil Spector's mansion, told jurors at his murder trial that Clarkson drew on her acting skills to convince people she was doing better than she actually was.

"When she had her game face on, she would make anybody believe she was happy. She could light up a room with her smile," Hayes-Riedl said. (VIDEO)

In reality, she said, Clarkson was at her lowest point ever, devastated that a man she had hoped to marry had broken off the relationship and humiliated by her new job as a hostess at a Sunset Strip music club.

"It was really hard for her to work there, because she had to pull out chairs for people she had beaten out for roles at one point in her career," she said.

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Hayes-Riedl was the third of Clarkson's friends to testify for the defense that the 40-year-old actress was worried about her career and struggling financially around the time of the 2003 shooting.

Spector, 67, contends that Clarkson shot herself in his foyer, either accidentally or because she was despondent about her future.

Prosecutors maintain Spector killed her when she tried to curtail what he hoped would be a sexual encounter.

Hayes-Riedl told jurors that Clarkson was "wonderful" and "the funniest person you'd ever want to meet," but nearly all of her other testimony was unflattering.

Under questioning from a defense attorney, Hayes said Clarkson liked to drink champagne and tequila and mixed alcohol with pain pills she was taking for broken wrists.

"That was something she liked to do quite often," she said.

When she combined the substances, Hayes said, "she was belligerent."

Clarkson was inebriated the night of the shooting and police found Vicodin pills in her purse.

She said that a few weeks before the shooting, Clarkson visited her home to borrow black clothes to wear to work in the VIP room of the House of Blues. She said Clarkson was upset that a talent agency had rejected a new videotape, which she had borrowed $30,000 to make in a bid to win a spot on a sketch comedy show like "Saturday Night Live."

"They told her it wasn't quality work ... and she was horrified," Hayes said.

She said Clarkson was sobbing.

"She said she had had it. Those were her exact words," she said.

According to Hayes-Riedl, Clarkson was also upset about the end of a romance she thought would lead to marriage and children.

"She thought he was the one," Hayes-Riedl said.

During direct examination, defense attorney Roger Rosen asked how Clarkson felt turning 40 affected her career. Other witnesses have said the actress despaired over it. Hayes-Riedl said Clarkson worried, but then added, "Lana really thought she was going to get that [big break]. It's not like she ever gave up hope that it was going to happen."

In cross-examination, a prosecutor seized on this statement, suggesting it contradicted everything she had said about Clarkson's grim state of mind.

"You said she never gave up hope," Deputy District Attorney Patrick Dixon said.

"Game-face hope. Different," Hayes-Riedl insisted.

The prosecutor showed her photos of a bulletin board in Clarkson's home decorated with upbeat phrases cut out of magazines, including "Live your dream destiny!" and "Imagine the future."

Hayes-Riedl brushed off the words as "Lana in work mode."

"Not Lana loaded when she is all crazy," she added.

Clarkson's mother, Donna, and sister, Fawn, sat in the front row of the courtroom during the testimony. At one break in the proceeding, her sister looked at her mother and shook her head incredulously.

Testimony resumes Thursday morning. The trial is being streamed live on Court TV Extra.